Al Pacino is one of the greatest living actors, well known for his appearances in classic films such as The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon. He is still going strong at 84 years old, continuing to perform in films and even becoming a father again.
However, the Oscar-winner recently claimed that he had a ɴᴇᴀʀ-ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ experience after getting Covid-19, and how the incident influenced his thoughts on the afterlife.
In a new interview with the New York Times, Pacino revealed that he nearly ᴅɪᴇᴅ from Covid in 2020. He stated that he was at home and began to feel “unusually not good,” with dehydration and a temperature.
After phoning for a nurse, Pacino claims to have suddenly lost vital signs: “I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone. Like that. I didn’t have a pulse,” he explained.
Pacino claims he awoke minutes later, surrounded by physicians and paramedics dressed in protective gear (“like they were from outer space or something,” he says).
“It was kind of sh0cking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here,’” Pacino recalled to the Times.
“Everybody thought I was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ,” he told People Magazine. “The nurse that was taking care of me said, ‘I don’t feel a pulse on this guy.’”
“I thought I experienced ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ. I might not have. I don’t think I have, really. I know I made it.”
Many people who have had near-death experiences have claimed afterlife-like sensations, such as images of deceased relatives inviting them to “come to the light,” and so on.
But Pacino claims he had no such visions of a great beyond; in fact, his brush with death confirmed to him that the end is truly the end.
“I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there,” he told the New York Times.
“As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.’ And he says two words: ‘no more.’ It was no more. You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life. But you know actors: It sounds good to say I ᴅɪᴇᴅ once. What is it when there’s no more?”
While many people find the finality of ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ terrifying, Pacino says he finds comfort in his children and the lasting body of work he will leave behind.
And it turns out that Pacino was unmoved by his brush with ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ: when questioned by People if it changed how he spends his life, the actor responded, “not at all.”
Even at his senior age, Pacino is a prolific performer, having acted in films such as Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (for his role as Jimmy Hoffa, he received his ninth Academy Award nomination), and Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci.
Pacino, 83, became a father again this summer, welcoming his fourth kid with Noor Alfallah, his then-29-year-old girfriend.
Al Pacino is one of the best cinematic performers of all time, and we’re delighted he survived his ɴᴇᴀʀ-ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ experience!
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